Little Augies

Little Augies

Also Known As	Little Augie's Gang Orgen Gang Little Augie organization
Origins
Founding Location	Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City
Territory	Lower East Side Garment and wet-wash laundry labor disputes across Manhattan
Lineage
Predecessor(s)	Dopey Benny Fein labor-slugging milieu (Orgen's earlier association, not formal succession)
Successor(s)	Buchalter–Shapiro labor-racketeering organization (later personnel and racket continuity, not transfer of every member)
Profile
Structure	Small labor-slugging and racketeering gang; complete roster and hierarchy uncertain
Ethnicity	Predominantly Jewish-American
Activities	Labor slugging Extortion and protection Strikebreaking and anti-strikebreaker violence Bootlegging Illegal gambling Assault and murder
Politics
Leader	Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen
Notable Members	Louis “Lepke” Buchalter (later associate) Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro (later associate) Jack “Legs” Diamond (associate and bodyguard)
Allies	Solomon Schapiro's gang (separately led ally during the 1923 wet-wash dispute)
Rivals	Rough Riders
Activity
Status	Fragmented after Orgen's killing
Years Active	c. 1923–October 1927 (securely documented principal phase; earlier antecedents uncertain)

The Little Augies were a predominantly Jewish-American Lower East Side gang led by Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen. The organization fought Nathan Kaplan's Rough Riders for labor-slugging contracts in 1923 and later participated in labor racketeering, bootlegging and other Prohibition-era activities.

The two gangs were rivals, not parts of one organization. After Kaplan's death, the Rough Riders dispersed and Orgen's group gained influence, but that displacement was not a documented merger.

Name and origins

Herbert Asbury wrote that Orgen, formerly associated with Dopey Benny Fein's labor-slugging circle, organized a small group “which he called the Little Augies.” “Little Augies” is therefore stronger than a purely retrospective surname label, although no charter or fixed membership roll survives.

Later accounts sometimes place the gang's origin around 1911. The strongest reviewed evidence securely reconstructs its principal independent phase from 1923; an exact founding year should not be inferred from Orgen's earliest criminal activity.

The nickname “Augie” was reportedly a corruption of Orgen's surname rather than his given name.

War with the Rough Riders

In 1923 the Little Augies challenged Kaplan's Rough Riders for contracts involving violence in garment and laundry disputes. Albert Fried describes the two organizations as the principal Lower East Side gangs contesting power during this phase.

During a wet-wash laundry dispute, Orgen's group allied with a separately led gang under Solomon Schapiro. Coalition in one dispute does not establish that Schapiro was Orgen's subordinate or that their gangs permanently merged.

Kaplan was shot dead outside Essex Market Court on August 28, 1923 while under police guard. Louis Cohen or Kerzner, associated with Orgen's side, was arrested at the scene and later indicted.

The evidence establishes Cohen's prosecution and the factional context. Later claims that Orgen, Buchalter, Shapiro or Diamond ordered Kaplan's killing should be attributed rather than treated as adjudicated fact without a qualifying court record.

Orgen's later organization

Following Kaplan's death and a period of police pressure, Orgen returned to labor racketeering and expanded into Prohibition-era bootlegging and gambling. Later associates included Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro and Jack “Legs” Diamond. Their later prominence does not establish that each always held a fixed formal rank under Orgen.

Orgen's organization sold violence and protection in labor disputes. The same underlying market could involve unions, employers and rival contractors. A union's use of gangsters in a particular dispute does not make the union or its membership a criminal organization.

The Little Augies should also be distinguished from Solomon Schapiro's separately led gang and from the later Shapiro brothers organization in Brooklyn. Similar surnames and temporary alliances do not prove organizational identity.

Orgen's killing and aftermath

Gunmen shot Orgen at Delancey and Norfolk Streets on the evening reported by The New York Times on October 16, 1927. Jack “Legs” Diamond was wounded in the attack.

Contemporary reporting initially connected the shooting to surviving Kid Dropper gunmen. Later histories commonly attribute the attack to Buchalter and Gurrah Shapiro, but no murder conviction reviewed here established the shooters or order-givers. The competing interpretations should remain distinct.

After Orgen's death, Buchalter and Shapiro developed their own, more centralized labor-racketeering power. This represents personnel, relationship and racket continuity—not proof that the intact Little Augies were simply renamed.

Organizational limits

The article covers Orgen's independently led gang. It does not include every labor slugger, every Jewish-American racketeer on the Lower East Side or every later Buchalter associate. Membership, command and participation require person-specific evidence.